Contributor: Emily Jo Scalzo

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Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers
defined my childhood,
instilling a love for reading
and a healthy imagination.

Rapt in front of the TV with a notebook
so LeVar Burton could give me a reading list,
I could go anywhere and be anything
through the power of literacy.

Mister Rogers made me his neighbor,
told me he liked me just the way I am,
taught me life lessons about my feelings,
introduced the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Expeditions and experiences
shared through analog;
from them I learned the power
inherent in myself.


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Emily Jo Scalzo has an MFA in Fiction from California State University, Fresno. She currently resides in Muncie, Indiana, and is an assistant professor at Ball State University. Her work has been published in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, The Mindful Word, Ms. Fit Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole.